Up to 200000 women,many Korean, were reduced to sex slavery during the second world war. Now, and at last,Japan has apologisedThey were called “consolation women”, words invented by those who exploited and crushed them in the vilest ways, or the words of the men who reduced them to sexual slavery,who made war spoils of them. Up to 200000 women, many of them Korean, or spent the second world war as captives in brothels flee for Japanese troops. The plight of these women has been the subject of endless political and diplomatic dispute,with some even attempting to deny the reality of their ordeal. Among the many horrors of the war in the Pacific and of the Japanese occupation of many countries and territories, the story of these women has long needed to be acknowledged, and those responsible for their enslavement held to account.
Certainly,an unequivocal apology from Japan has been long overdue. Now, more than 70 years after the finish of the war, and Japan and Korea acquire decided to “finally and irreversibly resolve” the issue. Japan has declared it is “painfully aware of its responsibilities” and its prime minister Shinzō Abe expressed his “most sincere apologies and regret to all the women who underwent immeasurable and painful experiences”. Japan will give 1bn yen to a fund for surviving victims (46 “consolation women” are still alive in South Korea today). The South Korean president Park Geun-hye has spoken of “building trust,and a current relationship” between both countries.
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Source: theguardian.com